Occupations

The categorization introduced in 1881 and described by
Matthew Woollard has
been used for all census years 1841 - 1901 with additional classification of the
"unoccupied" class.

Around 4,000 distinct occupations were classified initially by Jill Kendal.
Some variations, such as the many abbreviations of "Agricultural Labourer" were
replaced withpout losing any information, but the database table of occupations
still contains 3,819 entries. We have introduced a "Preferred Occupation" field
with 2,622 distict entries, to remove many entries that are essentially duplicates
and also clarifies the entries where a declared occupation includes a work status
such as "Unemployed", "Formerly" etc. This allows these terms to be searched for,
as well as the Classes, Groups, Sub-groups and Categories used in the 1881
categorization. In reporting occupations this "Preferred Occupation" is used
whereas in the "Name Index" section the original "Occupation" is used.

Later census years included additional information about work status, whether
persons were employers or employees and whether they worked at home. These also
can be used in searches of the database and included in reports, along with partial
searches of the "Preferred Occupation" to find occupations that include say
"Farm".

Included as an appendix to the
document
written by Matthew Woollard a list of Classes, Groups, Sub-Groups and categories
with the additional classification of the "unoccupied" class can be found here.